The Private Clinic

CHAPTER 12 - CASPER HARDWIN

After jamming for a while, a crewmember interrupts us and tells us we have half an hour until we're up. I glance around the curtain, the venue is getting pretty crowded. I rub my hands together in anticipation.

"Half an hour, and our biggest show yet will start."

"I am so goddamn excited," Oliver said as he reached into his back pocket to get out a pack of cigarettes. "Want one?" he offered.

I take one and light it.

"You should really quit smoking, man." Daniel warned.

"And why would I do that?" Oliver blew out the smoke from his lungs.

"You're our lead, we need your voice."

"Still have a voice, do I not?"

"Yeah, you do but when you smoke it affects your throat and voice."

"Bullshit, man. Been smoking since I was thirteen."

"What, like it's an accomplishment?" Daniel huffed.

I can't help but smile a little at my two best friends bickering. I take a long drag from my cigarette and let the smoke hover in my lungs for a little while. At least I don't need my voice. I keep the cigarette in the corner of my mouth and lean against the wall.

"Guys, look, look – over there. The mural." I gesture to the wall across from us, signed with colorful signatures and logos of artists and bands.

Oliver and Daniel's heads simultaneously move into the direction I'm pointing at.

"Dude, we have to sign it. We just have to."

I nodded. "For sure."

"Do we even have a logo?" Oliver joked.

"No, but we can make on, right here, right now!"

The three of us are busy with markers, trying to make a logo that lasts, on this wide mural. Doing this feels ecstatic. I take a few steps back and view the mural from a distance. I slide my phone out of my pocket, and see that I missed 3 calls from an anonymous number. The phone vibrates in my hand once again.

"Fuck, man. I gotta take this." I told my friends but it doesn't seem to be audible in between their doodling.

I make a safe distance between me and them, to a corner where no one passes.

"Casper." I answer the phone.

"Casper Hardwin, this is chief Webster speaking. You might want to sit down for this."

"Chief Webster? Police? Oh shit, what did I do now?" I panicked.

"It's okay, Casper, calm down. It ain't you this time. However, I must say I don't have good news now, either."

"Just tell me what's going on, I'm about to go on stage."

"Oh, that's tonight?"

"What do you mean that's tonight? Yes that's now. Chief, please cut to the chase." My vision blurs as I stare towards Daniel and Oliver laughing.

"Son, this is about your parents, they have been involved in an accident."

My heart drops. I hear chief Webster's voice through the receiver, but I can't seem to save the words in my brain.

"W-what?" I stuttered, unable to say anything else.

"Kid, can I pick you up somewhere? Where are you?"

"A-at the venue. . . we're gonna. . . I'm about to play!"

"I think-"

"I need to get to the hospital quick, I mean, are they still. . . Are they still. . ."